


Stitches

by dashery



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Act Six, F/M, Medical Procedures, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-26
Updated: 2012-02-26
Packaged: 2017-10-31 18:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/347074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dashery/pseuds/dashery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Dave, you’re still bleeding, so you are getting these stitches whether you want them or not! Woof!”</p>
<p>“That sure is a nice opinion you have there but I’ll have to get back to you after I talk to my agent.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stitches

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Crissy for checking Jade's voice for me!

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] started pestering turntechGodhead [TG] --  
GG: excuse me mister hideypants but i think enough is enough!  
TG: what  
GG: you know exactly what im talking about :|  
TG: ok look  
TG: im kind of a busy guy  
TG: ive got a latrine ditch about three miles wide to dig just to hold all the colossally important shit i have to get done  
GG: yeah right!!!  
TG: its like the bfg took a dump over mexico city  
TG: this shitpiles the size of lil waynes ego  
GG: its been a whole day :\  
GG: and honestly.......  
GG: youre being kind of a child about this!  
TG: ouch  
TG: im telling ma  
GG: fine!  
GG: if youre going to act like a stupid troll wiggler then that is just how i am going to treat you  
GG: prepare to get SCHOOLFED!!  
TG: what  
TG: wait

Flash.

Davesprite found himself in a room on the ship staring into the sparking green eyes of an exasperated and unyielding Jade Harley. He pretended her teleportation shtick wasn’t as disconcerting as fuck (that the transition _wasn’t_ completely disorienting made his head spin) and just turned aside. “Hear that?”

“What?” she asked, arms crossed, tapping her ruby red slipper against the linoleum. Her devilbeast ears pricked forward like satellite dishes. It wasn’t just her eyes that were sparking green; she crackled with power that made his skin prickle. He ignored the sensation.

“That was the sound the idea I had any free will made as it executed an impeccable ten-point somersaulting swan dive to its brutal spine-cracking death at the bottom of Spacewitch Mountain.”

“Ugggh, really, Dave?” Jade rolled her eyes and steered him to a stool.

That’s how it was with them. Alpha Dave wasn’t there, so, with her, he got to be just Dave, feathers and all. And it was okay, because—he was pretty sure—she missed him. Sometimes in the twenty-eight hours since the Reckoning he’d caught her looking at him too hard, eyes huge behind her glasses and teeth worrying her lip, and sometimes she’d push past him with a canine growl almost close to a whine, and he knew he would never ask her what happened to Dave on LOFAF (John had said enough) and he took it as gratitude that she never asked about Bro.

“I don’t remember signing a consent form.” Davesprite balked from the stool and folded his arms over his chest, watching her bustle towards a cabinet. A quick look around the room confirmed it: a row of standing curtains and identical patient beds in cheery-sterile Prospitian gold, nightstands with fake flowers, fluorescent lights—yeah. Ship’s infirmary. It was time to abscond the hell out of there.

He inched towards the exit but she turned and pointed. _“Sit!”_ The stool vanished only to hit him in the back of the knees (if he’d had knees). “Dave, you’re still bleeding, so you are getting these stitches whether you want them or not! Woof!”

“That sure is a nice opinion you have there but I’ll have to get back to you after I talk to my agent.” Summoning all the speed he had left, Davesprite dove over the stool and made a sweet ninja break right through the door—

Flash. He was suddenly square on his ass on the bed nearest the cabinets, back against the wall, and Jade had gotten right up in his grill. She was leaning over him with one hand planted to either side of his head. _“Dave.”_

He forced his feathers to lie flat. “Help, I need an adult.”

“You wouldn’t if you’d stop being such a baby! And when I asked the grown-up Prospitians you said no.”

“The list of people I trust with sharp shit within six inches of this fly bod is about as long as the list of decent movies John actually likes.” He straightened so she wasn’t looming over him anymore. “We’re talking A-list secret handshake exclusive here, check your ID at the door.”

The stubborn set of her mouth softened a little. She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, but the frustration slipped from her shoulders. “Wow, Dave, that sure sounds like a really big deal! What do I have to do to get into the cool sharp things club?”

“Jade, come on, it doesn’t even hurt,” he replied, adjusting his shades. “I think sprites aren’t programmed to f—”

To his credit, he didn’t make a sound when she pressed one fingertip to a spot an inch to the side of the stab wound. He didn’t breathe, either, because every nerve and tendon in his body seized up in an electric-hot yellow power surge of mind-razing holy fucking shit jesus christ pain.

His expression didn’t change, but Jade’s melted into pure dismay and she snatched her hand back like a snake. “Oh no, Dave, I’m sorry!” Before he could pull air into his paralyzed lungs she reached out again and cradled his head carefully against her shoulder. “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” she repeated around the saddest woofs in the world.

He’d never been so close and he would have jerked away if he could move, but she was warm and solid and then she was stroking his hair. When the spasm subsided, he just let out a shaky breath against her collarbone and she let him sit up.

“Can I please stitch it up?” she asked, eyes bright.

All right, maybe she had a point. He managed a shrug. “Yeah. Okay. If that’s what you’re into.”

She chuckled and rubbed her eye and got up to rummage through the cabinet. Davesprite leaned casually (not weakly) against the wall and watched her as she stood on her tiptoes to see. “Where’d John blow himself off to?”

“He’s still trying to get the computers to connect beyond the ship. Can you undo your bandages for me?” Everything in the room—everything in the _ship_ —was the same eye-smarting gold, even the contents of the cabinet, but somehow Jade found what she was looking for and placed a small tray on the counter, followed by a little bottle and some cloths and other things he didn’t want to know too much about (but knew he would).

“You’d think a guy could waste three years doing other completely pointless bullshit.” He found the end of the bandage and started peeling it away, grimacing when it stuck to his skin.

She huffed. “Don’t be mean, Dave. He misses them.” The stool he’d knocked over disappeared again only to pop up next to the bed, and then Jade reappeared cross-legged on top of it with the medical gear in her lap. “And I know you’re just pretending to be too cool to care because you miss them, too.”

“Okay.” She was fussing with the bottle and one of the little cloths so he focused on getting the bandage all unwound and then, for the first time since the fight, checked the damage.

There sure was a huge bleeding gash through his torso.

He didn’t realize Jade was talking until she flicked him in the temple with her finger. “Come on, Dave, snap out of it! You need to let me see or else I am only going to poke you full of little holes.”

“Been there, bought the t-shirt,” he said, pointing at his stomach, but he shifted for her anyway.

Her expression drained for a moment to an emotionless thin line that he didn’t know how to read, but then she shook herself, woofed, and placed a hand on his chest to keep him still. “Okay, this…will probably hurt a lot,” she admitted, and she leaned forward to dab at the wound with her cloth.

The alcohol burned and he jerked under her hand. “Oh god, sorry!” Jade said, dropping the cloth to steady him with both hands. “Do you—durr, Jade, I should have—I can get you a painkiller or something, if you want it!”

“Just—no, don’t worry about it. Let’s just get this over with.” He took her wrist and moved her hand away. She bit her lip, but he kept himself together as she continued to clean the wound. It took three of her makeshift wipes to finish the job and of course it was still bleeding sluggishly, but Davesprite didn’t really feel nervous until Jade tore open a couple of innocuous-looking little packets and picked up some weird scissor-tweezers. “So how long have you been in practice, Dr. Harley,” he drawled, more deadpan than usual as his fingers tightened in the bed sheets.

“I have had a lot of practice with this kind of thing, Dave!” she answered as she removed an evilly curved sliver of metal from the first packet.

He raised his eyebrows behind his shades. “Really?” She did seem to be handling the tweezers like a pro and was attaching some thread from the other packet to the metal bit, but—

“Yes, really! On dead things.”

His face fell back into complete impassivity.

“Jee-e-eez, Dave, you don’t have to look at me like that! I had to do all the stitching on Grandpa after he died and I had to stuff him, and my Manthro Chaps all came with medical kits.”

“Great. Awesome. I am feeling so assured right now, I could out-Zen Siddhartha Gautama for the Grand Title Championship of well-being. You get an A for legitimate experience and an A plus for professional bedside manner.”

“Woof!” She rolled her eyes, but looked reluctant to proceed, in spite of herself. “Well, hmm, I don’t know. Since you’re part bird, you’re basically just a big orange Manthro Chap yourself now! Except not quite as cheerful and pleasant, though of course you are still a wonderful friend.”

He ruffled his wings. “Thanks, Jade. My dream was always to be compared to a creepy wall-eyed squeaky toy for four-year-old furries. My life is now complete.”

“Good! Now hold still.”

He braced himself, but she still hesitated. After a moment, he lowered his chin a little. “Jade.” She looked up from the wound. “It’s fine. There’s no way it can hurt more than it did going in unless you decide to go psychomurder on me.”

“Hehe.” Her smile was watery, but she steeled her spine and got to work. Davesprite had to look away but her hands were steady, and it didn’t hurt any worse than an average hash-rap battle with Bro.

“So what were you so busy doing in your apartment?” she asked as she cut a finished stitch from the suture thread.

He glanced at her—her head blocked his view of what she was doing, and all he could see of her expression was her ears, and fuck if he could read dog body language. “Oh. You know. Stuff.” He glanced back at the wall.

“Cool stuff?”

“You know it. Mixing beats and taking names,” he lied. The apartment had felt—after so long, and with the SBURB gear in place of his bed and the TV, and with Bro gone—it had all felt unfamiliar. And dead. He hadn’t done more than stand in the center of the living room and stare at his brother’s posters.

The needle slipped in one more time and brought him out of his morose funk. “You better not keep all those swee-e-e-eet jams to yourself,” she said, tying the stitch off. “All your stuff is really, really great! So if you finish anything, I want to be the first to hear it. And we’re done!” She snipped the thread one last time and grinned up at him.

“Cool.” He started to look down, but Jade poked him in the forehead. “Wha—”

“Don’t move yet! When I said done, I didn’t mean _done_ done. I am going to clean you up again, okay?”

He sighed and slumped back against the wall. “Yes, Mom.”

“Dave!” But she laughed as she wiped down the stitched-up wound and then applied some stinging, mystery ointment to it. “Son, if you don’t behave, I’m going to ground you for the rest of your life! And take away TV privileges! Sit up, okay?” She teleported a roll of gauze into her hands. He had to rest his arms on her shoulders to get them out of the way as she wrapped him up again, and their heads were so close he could smell the cucumber melon shampoo she used on her hair.

He didn’t notice she’d finished until she slid her hand into his feather ruff. “Hey, Dave?” she said, still looking down.

“Sup.”

She kissed him.

It was soft, and light, and he almost didn’t know it had happened until she pulled away. Her eyes were so full and blindingly sincere that it hurt to look at her, but she trapped his gaze. Her lips trembled.

“You’re warm,” she said, voice choked and low, and then she disappeared in a flash.

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] started pestering ectoBiologist [EB] --  
GG: hi john!  
GG: hoooows it going with the computers? :o  
EB: hey jade!  
EB: augh, i don’t know, this is just so frustrating and impossible and lame!  
GG: :C  
EB: can we really not connect to rose and karkat and vriska and dave??  
GG: i really think we cant  
GG: not until were all in the new session, anyway  
EB: lamey lame laaaaaaaame.  
GG: i know!!!  
GG: well  
GG: let me know if you make any breakthroughs!  
GG: there is someone i want to hear from, too  
EB: oh man.  
EB: i bet i know who it is.  
GG: um what?  
EB: it’s karkat isn’t it!  
GG: :O  
EB: i know i’m right, you don’t have to answer.  
EB: he totally wooed you over with his angry yet affectionate ways, just like in a japanese love manga.  
EB: you two are totally going to get hatemarried and break dave’s heart!  
GG: derp yes that is totally what is going to happen, me and karkat are secretly in anime love!!  
EB: i knew it!  
EB: but what about dave?  
EB: the very integrity of karkat’s shitty shipping diagram is at stake!  
GG: i am going to go now  
EB: aww, ok!  
EB: don’t be too sad, ok. i’m sure he misses you too.  
EB: karkat, i mean.  
GG: :p  
EB: and in the meantime you have me and casey and dave sprite and all those chess guys to help you with any problems you might have, even if you are a space goddess and also a dog.  
GG: john...  
GG: .................  
GG: yup bye!!!  
\-- gardenGnostic [GG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] --


End file.
